8  SELLING  LATIN  AMERICA

ing  after  this  trade  which  all  of  Europe
strained  every  resource  to  acquire  and  control.
It  was  urged  that  we  had  all  the  business  we
required;  that  we  lacked  foreign  banking
facilities;  that  our  merchant  marine  was  small
and  inefficient;  that  to  go  abroad  for  trade
meant  learning  new  languages,  acquiring  new
customs,  opening  new  accounts,  taking  more
risks.  These  conditions  were  equally  true
when  the  European  merchant  decided  to  enter
this  field.  He  met  and  overcame  all  these
difficulties  under  far  more  adverse  circumstances ­
  than  exist  for  us,  to-day.  His  experience ­
  in  this  territory  has  charted  the  path
for  us  to  follow,  and  if  we  take  advantage  of
the  beacons  he  has  erected  we  shall  be  saved
from  many  pitfalls.
Latin  America  with  the  things  the  world
most  requires—wheat,  meat,  wool,  coffee,
sugar,  nitrates,  minerals,  woods—can  never
collapse  completely  through  any  financial
crisis.  Furthermore  its  power  of  reviving
quickly  from  any  unfavorable  panic  is  truly
phenomenal.  I  recall  Venezuela,  the  year  she